Nicole
Billinge is a successful artist living and working in Cornwall, England. Nicole
records each and every place visited whether it is in the UK Cornwall,Norwich,
Milton Keynes, Devon, Essex or landscapes much further afield such as Canada,
Australia, Portugal, America, Japan... The images that fill her sketchbooks
capture a landscape’s
true character.
A graduate of Norwich School of Art and Design, Billinge trained in Textiles
incorporating her drawing skills focusing on using experimental print methods
and later went on to complete an MA in Fine Art.
From natural sources Nicole gathers and extracts raw materials and pigments to
use in her work. By building up layers to create a sense of place Nicole has
captured a moment of a landscape in her work. Several Years ago Nicole’s experimentations began,
when she was eager to perfect dyeing techniques to get exactly the right
effect. She researched the work of William
Morris, following in the same footsteps of Morris led her on a journey
examining ancient herbals and medieval dyeing recipes which she later came to
develop to use with contrast and in conjunction to the shocking revelations and
developments in textiles brought about by the Industrial Revolution.
Billinge has undertaken new challenges of applying her research to another
level, using installation as an opportunity to bring the landscape into a
gallery space and to the viewer. Within this ongoing journey of recording
landscapes she has been creating “canvas compositions" that capture the
depth of the landscape.
Nicole’s
latest work in 2009, and possibly her most exciting to date, has been exploring
Rights of Way. Using sign posts and mapping to
identify the possibilities of how a landscape could be trespassing into a
personal space.
